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13 month old loves milk - help!

2 replies

Havasham · 18/11/2023 16:45

Long time lurker here but after some advice for my 13 month old who's getting quite demanding for milk.

Bit of background, EBF til 6 months, combi fed until 10 months then solely bottle fed since then. Used to be a great eater but now struggling to get anything bar fruit into her after lunch. Sometimes she'll surprise me and devour a dinner but mostly gets quite upset in the high chair. She's around 20th centile and always has been. Very active, early walker, communicating well so not worried about development.

Had a tummy bug just before her first birthday where she'd only drink milk, then has cut 4 teeth over the last month so I'm sure this has also affected her solid intake.

She's still waking at night, usually just once. Sometimes it's as late as 5am but I do give her milk and then she'll go back to sleep. The problem is now she's waking up at all different times of the night shouting for a bottle (she can say it). Not satisfied if I give it to her in a sippy cup. She'll always drink it all (usually I give her 5oz in the night) so I'm not sure if it's hunger or just comfort. I'd love to get rid of this night wake completely. We sleep trained at 8 months and she has no problem falling asleep independently.

Any advice? Do I stop the bottles cold turkey and move over to a sippy cup and hope this improves her solid intake? Or ride it out and hope it's a phase linked to teething? Over 24 hours she's having 4 bottles. (First thing, mid afternoon, bedtime and then a night wake). She drinks Alpro oat milk as cows milk doesn't agree with her and I'm very conscious it's sweet! And any advice to get her to eat what we're eating - I'm trying desperately but dinners are mostly ending up on the floor.

Thanks :)

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Superscientist · 18/11/2023 18:38

Just follow her lead.

My daughter didn't eat her first meal until 13 months. She was slow to engage with weaning which was quite stressful but she got there eventually! Similar situation to you ebf to 10 months, tired and failed to get combi feeding to work between 8 and 10 months. She was then formula fed from then until 2 years. We had prescription formula due to allergies. At 20 months her diet was assessed to see if she could sustain herself without the formula and her diet was good enough so between 20 months and 2 years we reduced the bottles and replaced them with oat milk. She has 100-200ml of oat milk at lunch time and 250ml of oat milk before bed as she need around 500ml a day to get the calcium, iodine and other nutrients from the oat milk. This loosely matches the bottles she was having at 20 months. She is 3 now and has the day time oat milk in an open cup and she has a beaker at bed time. We use oatly barista as recommended by our dietitian and a pea protein allergy means we can't have any of the alpro milks.

Notjustfish · 18/11/2023 18:43

I would drop all bottles except for over night. Make sure she is getting two
snacks a day and supper.

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